Flack watch: Guarino returns!

This just in: Dave Guarino, who left the Herald to work as communications director for Tom Reilly--first in the AG's office, then for Reilly's gubernatorial campaign--has signed on as communications director for House speaker Sal DiMasi.

Guarino's move proves, for the umpteenth time, that F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous maxim--"There are no second acts in American lives"--is hogwash. Last August, Guarino's efforts to use anti-Coke activist Ray Rogers to discredit Deval Patrick were revealed in a devastating column by the Globe's Joan Vennochi. This didn't retroactively erase all Guarino's strong work covering politics for the Herald, however. And now he's got one of the best flack jobs on Beacon Hill.